The Earth Chronicles Project is an educational documentary series produced for broadcast and educational venues, accompanied by exhibits at museums and other non-profit venues. They focus on art, ecological sustainability and cultural preservation and are co-produced by Ms. Fran Hardy, M.Ed., artist/educator and Bob Demboski, filmmaker. To see Ms. Hardy’s art focusing on ancient trees and forests go to: http://www.franhardy.com.
http://earthchroniclesproject.com

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Detail of clump of bananas growing and with the flower from "Morning Mist Rising"

by Fran Hardy Copyright

An interview that Terry Gross did with Dan Koeppel on Fresh Air this morning on his book, "Bananas, The Uncertain Future of a Favorite Fruit" made me think about how enchanted I have been with banana plants, ever since I saw them growing up close and personal in Jamaica in around 1973. Not only were the large leafed plants beguiling but when I saw how the bananas formed on the stalk and the magnificent large and unusual inflorescence, I was inspired. When we moved to Punta Gorda, Florida I went to Echo Nursery in Ft. Myers and saw all the edible fruit plants they carried. Their collection of types of banana trees was extensive. I never knew there were so many luscious and beautiful varieties beyond the standard cavendish banana we get in the stores. Each of their inflorescences was different as were the sizes, colors and tastes of the different types of bananas. There are even apple bananas and ice cream bananas.

Here is information on bananas from Echo Nursery. They are now not selling all the varieties that they grow there because of the threat of the fungal banana disease "Black Sigatoka" which is not in the United States yet but which biologists feel will be impossible to prevent from reaching here from other countries and which will wipe out the Cavendish bananas we eat here. Cavendish are the ones commercially grown for export because their skin is tough enough to allow them to be shipped.

I grew bananas in our yard in Florida and the wonderfully tasty varieties I grew were too fragile for shipping. The other thing that happens is that you get a huge clump of bananas like the picture above and even the most ardent banana lover can not eat all those bananas before they get over ripe. I made banana bread etc and finally discovered they could be frozen and used as a sweetening base for a fresh fruit sherbet when pureed with other fruits. Scrumptious....of course I gorged on fresh bananas for days when they were ripe. That is a sweet succulent taste treat unlike any store bought banana.

In the radio interview Dan Koeppel gives a glimpse into the history of how bananas came to be America's most popular fruit. The name banana republic (not the clothing store, but the South American countries) came from the fact that business men decided to make the banana America's most popular fruit by growing them cheaply in South America in order to supplant the apple which can be grown locally.

In order for them to be able to sell bananas cheaply they had to grow and ship them as cheaply as possible. They paid extremely low wages in the countries where they grew them and any country or government that complained was taken over, with American assistance, in order to support the interests of companies like American Fruit. In the interview they said there were literally 22 coups supported secretly by our government making the banana barons very rich. These were the early companies that became Chiquita and Dole.

To hear a podcast of Terry Gross's interview or read about the fascinating history and story of bananas, that we take for granted will be on our market shelves, go to the link above or buy Dan Koeppel's book.

Echo is an educational nursery well worth a visit. Here is a brief description of their important mission from their website below:

Our goal is to improve the abilities of international community development workers assisting poor farmers by providing useful, important information and by networking their skills and knowledge with each other. We also provide hard-to-find beneficial food plants and seeds.

ECHO understands that there is a wealth of agricultural knowledge among the poor farmers we seek to assist. As such, ECHO does not "teach" people how to farm. Rather we work to make farmers more effective at growing food producing crops under harsh conditions.

Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic bananas come from the two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana or hybrids Musa acuminata × balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific names Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca are no longer used.

Banana is also used to describe Enset and Fe'i bananas, neither of which belong to the Musa genus. Enset bananas belong to the genusEnsete while the taxonomy of Fe'i-type cultivars is uncertain.

In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet "dessert" bananas. By contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains or "cooking bananas". The distinction is purely arbitrary and the terms 'plantain' and 'banana' are sometimes interchangeable depending on their usage.

The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant.[4] The plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy and are often mistaken for trees, but their main or upright stem is actually a pseudostem that grows 6 to 7.6 metres (20 to 24.9 ft) tall, growing from a corm. Each pseudostem can produce a single bunch of bananas. After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots may develop from the base of the plant. Many varieties of bananas are perennial.

Leaves are spirally arranged and may grow 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) long and 60 cm (2.0 ft) wide.[5] They are easily torn by the wind, resulting in the familiar frond look.[6]

Each pseudostem normally produces a single inflorescence, also known as the banana heart. (More are sometimes produced; an exceptional plant in the Philippines produced five.)[7] The inflorescence contains many bracts (sometimes incorrectly called petals) between rows of flowers. The female flowers (which can develop into fruit) appear in rows further up the stem from the rows of male flowers. The ovary is inferior, meaning that the tiny petals and other flower parts appear at the tip of the ovary.

The banana fruits develop from the banana heart, in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers (called hands), with up to 20 fruit to a tier. The hanging cluster is known as a bunch, comprising 3–20 tiers, or commercially as a "banana stem", and can weigh from 30–50 kilograms (66–110 lb). In common usage, bunch applies to part of a tier containing 3-10 adjacent fruits.

Individual banana fruits (commonly known as a banana or 'finger') average 125 grams (0.28 lb), of which approximately 75% is water and 25% dry matter. There is a protective outer layer (a peel or skin) with numerous long, thin strings (the phloembundles), which run lengthwise between the skin and theedible inner portion. The inner part of the common yellow dessert variety splits easily lengthwise into three sections that correspond to the inner portions of the three carpels.

The fruit has been described as a "leathery berry".[8] In cultivated varieties, the seeds are diminished nearly to non-existence; their remnants are tiny black specks in the interior of the fruit. Bananas grow pointing up, not hanging down.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

This was the second drawing from my staghorn series that began after Hurricane Charley. It became a series that spoke about the cycles of aging, inspired by the staghorn ferns I saw at Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota. Our neighbor Charlie also had a beautiful staghorn fern hanging from his back porch that I watched evolve and grow. The drawing youth was based on his staghorn fern, as I thought it looked very maternal and youthful as opposed to the drawings "Old Age Fragility" and "Vulnerability" which were based on a huge old staghorn with lots of dried parts at the botanical gardens. These also became the basis for a series of very experimental paintings which I will talk about in a future blog and also a series of etchings.

In between all the many challenges of the aftermath of Hurricane Charley doing these drawings in my studio provided a place of refuge and sanity.

As I said in the previous post, the fact that our house had been built with recent stricter building codes and our hurricane shutters as well as Bob's reinforcement of our garage door meant that we were quite fortunate.

This was the internal damage from a piece of flying debris smashing through the wall of our house which also blew out the plumbing under the sink.

We also had a lap pool, which I adored, as I am an avid swimmer. Doing laps was wonderful exercise for me and lots of creative ideas would bloom in my brain as I swam. The hurricane destroyed our two story pool cage, a necessity with all the mosquitos and no-see-ums in south Florida.

The electricity was out for about three weeks which was a challenge for those of us modern Florida dwellers. My father grew up there in the early days before air conditioning. No wonder southerners take siestas. Later in his childhood, room air conditioners came into being and Bob and I had central air. My father can still stand insufferable heat in the humid New Jersey summers where he lives. I find it insufferable and really love the dryness and cool nights here in New Mexico. Bob found it so unbearable for sleeping after the hurricane took out our electric that he slept in our front doorway where there was at least a slight breeze. The central air also prevents the growth of mold and those of our neighbors whose roofs were breached rapidly found their houses literally black with mold inside, which is very dangerous to breathe and can cause serious illness. We had a little mold and luckily our homeowner's insurance paid for us to bring in a raft of fans and dehumidifiers after the electricity came on three weeks later. Many people were having major issues with their insurance. You pay and pay for it and really don't know if they will come through for you like they should until disaster hits. We were lucky to be able to stay in our house as many were unlivable in our neighborhood. The Red Cross came in and delivered meals to a neighbors house until the utilities were restored and we all met there for meals which helped to restore a sense of community. There was no cell phone service with any remaining bandwidth being used by the emergency reponders and of course all the landlines were down. FEMA did pay for us to get a generator which powered a few fans after several weeks. All the generators would sell out early in the mornings until new shipments came in and gas was hard to come by. Another issue was getting competent contractors to do the repairs. People came in from other parts of the country to meet the needs of homeowners for repairs and there were many that weren't reputable besides the challenge of coordinating with the insurance to get the repairs approved and paid for. That was part of the networking at the Red Cross meals sharing contacts for repairs and stories of who not to use and how to find contractors, roofers etc. The roofers were especially expensive and hard to find. We had weeks dealing with the person who was supposed to redo our siding and finally fired him (Luckily we hadn't paid him for the whole job.) We hired the guy who had quit working for him in disgust. He finished our job and we referred him to a friend whom he skipped out on after being paid much to our surprise. This was how it was.......

Hurricane Charley was relatively narrow storm as opposed to some that are many more miles wide. One day we went up to Venice, Florida which had been unaffected and was only about 40 minutes away. We went into a Subway for lunch and people were going about their business as normal and chatting about fish licenses while we lived in a disaster zone. What a contrast. We really do all inhabit our own reality.

In my next post....from Florida to New Mexico and then a rhapsody on peaches inspired by my sister.

Hurricane Charley was the third named storm, the second hurricane, and the second major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. Charley lasted from August 9 to August 15, and at its peak intensity it attained 150 mph (240 km/h) winds, making it a strong Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The storm made landfall in southwestern Florida at maximum strength, thus making it the strongest hurricane to hit the United States since Hurricane Andrew struck Florida twelve years before, in 1992.

After moving briskly through the Caribbean Sea, Charley crossed Cuba on Friday, August 13 as a Category 3 hurricane, causing heavy damage and four deaths. That same day, the hurricane crossed over the Dry Tortugas, just 22 hours after Tropical Storm Bonnie struck northwesternFlorida. This was the first time in history that two tropical cyclones struck the same state in a 24-hour time period[citation needed]. Charley was one of two major hurricanes to hit Florida in 2004, and one of four hurricanes to directly affect the state.

At its peak intensity of 150 mph (240 km/h), Hurricane Charley struck the northern tip of Captiva Island and the southern tip of North Captiva Island, causing severe damage in both areas. Charley, the strongest hurricane to hit southwest Florida since Hurricane Donna in 1960, then continued to produce severe damage as it made landfall on the peninsula near Port Charlotte. The hurricane continued to the north by northeast along the Peace River corridor, devastating the small cities of Punta Gorda, Cleveland, Fort Ogden, Nocatee, Arcadia, Zolfo Springs, Sebring, and Wauchula. Zolfo Springs was isolated for nearly two days as masses of large trees, power pole, power lines, transformers, and debris filled the streets. Wauchula sustained gusts to 147 mph (236 km/h), buildings in the downtown areas caved in onto Main Street. Ultimately, the storm passed through the central and eastern parts of the Orlando metropolitan area, still carrying winds gusting up to 106 mph (171 km/h). Interestingly, the city of Winter Park, north of Orlando, also sustained considerable damage since its many old, large oak trees had not experienced high winds. Falling trees tore down power utilities, smashed cars, and their huge roots lifted underground water and sewer utilities.

Damage in the state totaled to over $13 billion (2004 USD). Charley, initially expected to hit further north in Tampa, caught many Floridians off-guard due to a sudden change in the storm's track as it approached the state. Throughout the United States, Charley caused 10 deaths and $15.4 billion in damage (2004 USD), making Charley the second costliest hurricane in United States history at the time (it has since dropped to 5th). Charley was a very small, very fast moving storm, otherwise damage would have been much more severe. Although mitigation and restoration was promised by FEMA to the poor communities of Hardee and DeSoto counties during town meetings, the agency did not pass the cursory planning stages, and the promised reconstruction and compensation never happened.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

All the news about Hurricane Irene made me hearken back to the August 13, 2004 and the day the eye of Hurricane Charley went right over the community we lived in called Pirate Harbor in Punta Gorda, Florida. Pirate Harbor, what a Florida name, right????? The drawing above and the others included in this staghorn series were done after the devastation of Charley and the several hurricanes that followed it. That was an incredibly stressful experience and getting lost in these drawings helped me to cope. Bob didn't know how I could do that but I guess art has always been my internal haven.

It all started the morning of August 11th when I woke early to banging and discovered Bob outside working on preparing our house for the storm he had just heard about on the radio. Somehow he knew this was going to be a major one and we spent over two days preparing. On the night before the hurricane hit our neighbor scoffed at all Bob's preparation and Bob came into the living room, which was like a cave with the hurricane shutters up and all our porch furniture and other valuables crammed in with the normal living room accoutrements. He was depressed and embarrassed that maybe he had over -reacted and I reassured him that I was very glad he was so diligent. It turned out that his diligence saved us from having a lot more damage.

We were debating whether to stay in our stilt house on Charlotte Harbor or go to my Uncle Bill's north of Orlando, when our friend Rick Fried called us and asked us to come stay with him in his house which was off the water in Port Charlotte about 15 minutes away. He had had the roof blown off his house in Miami, during Hurricane Andrew and had hunkered down under a mattress for hours, in the dark, terrified with the wind and noise, but unable to see anything because it went over in the middle of the night. That storm had stalled and stayed there for many hours. He said he would be very glad of our company and was prepared with batteries etc. There was a storm surge threatened, so we could be flooded in at our house, so we went to stay with Rick. The one thing he didn't have was hurricane shutters and we ended up watching a category 5 hurricane from his windows. We were all very fortunate that the winds blew the opposite direction from his sliders and big windows or they most certainly would have blown out. We were watching the television powered by a car battery when the storm which was supposed to head up to landfall around St. Pete took a swift turn over Sanibel and Captiva and the eye went right over Pirate Harbor as we watched in disbelief and horror.

This is Rick's house, where we stayed, after the hurricane ended. He ended up with one of the infamous blue FEMA tarps on his roof.

It was fascinating, unbelievable and terrifying. First the winds blew at about 145 miles an hour one direction with limbs crashing and debris flying. Then the eye went over and for a short while it was totally calm and then the winds began the lash us from the opposite direction. The storm was pretty much over by nightfall and we slept at Rick's and then headed back down to our house the next day. Only residents were allowed in as the National Guard had arrived and was preventing any looting and offering assistance. The huge highway lights were snapped in two like matchsticks and our community was devastated. Many of the older houses were destroyed and the house across the street from us had imploded. It was sad to see them searching through the rubble for anything they could salvage. The new building codes make a big difference and most of the damage to our house was from the flying debris from the house across the street hitting our house. But this was only the beginning of the travails of living in the aftermath of such a big storm. More in my next blog post......and also the story behind the staghorn series of drawings that this period in my life created.

Hurricane Charley was the third named storm, the second hurricane, and the second major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. Charley lasted from August 9 to August 15, and at its peak intensity it attained 150 mph (240 km/h) winds, making it a strong Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The storm made landfall in southwestern Florida at maximum strength, thus making it the strongest hurricane to hit the United States since Hurricane Andrew struck Florida twelve years before, in 1992.

After moving briskly through the Caribbean Sea, Charley crossed Cuba on Friday, August 13 as a Category 3 hurricane, causing heavy damage and four deaths. That same day, the hurricane crossed over the Dry Tortugas, just 22 hours after Tropical Storm Bonnie struck northwesternFlorida. This was the first time in history that two tropical cyclones struck the same state in a 24-hour time period[citation needed]. Charley was one of two major hurricanes to hit Florida in 2004, and one of four hurricanes to directly affect the state.

At its peak intensity of 150 mph (240 km/h), Hurricane Charley struck the northern tip of Captiva Island and the southern tip of North Captiva Island, causing severe damage in both areas. Charley, the strongest hurricane to hit southwest Florida since Hurricane Donna in 1960, then continued to produce severe damage as it made landfall on the peninsula near Port Charlotte. The hurricane continued to the north by northeast along the Peace River corridor, devastating the small cities of Punta Gorda, Cleveland, Fort Ogden, Nocatee, Arcadia, Zolfo Springs, Sebring, and Wauchula. Zolfo Springs was isolated for nearly two days as masses of large trees, power pole, power lines, transformers, and debris filled the streets. Wauchula sustained gusts to 147 mph (236 km/h), buildings in the downtown areas caved in onto Main Street. Ultimately, the storm passed through the central and eastern parts of the Orlando metropolitan area, still carrying winds gusting up to 106 mph (171 km/h). Interestingly, the city of Winter Park, north of Orlando, also sustained considerable damage since its many old, large oak trees had not experienced high winds. Falling trees tore down power utilities, smashed cars, and their huge roots lifted underground water and sewer utilities.

Damage in the state totaled to over $13 billion (2004 USD). Charley, initially expected to hit further north in Tampa, caught many Floridians off-guard due to a sudden change in the storm's track as it approached the state. Throughout the United States, Charley caused 10 deaths and $15.4 billion in damage (2004 USD), making Charley the second costliest hurricane in United States history at the time (it has since dropped to 5th). Charley was a very small, very fast moving storm, otherwise damage would have been much more severe. Although mitigation and restoration was promised by FEMA to the poor communities of Hardee and DeSoto counties during town meetings, the agency did not pass the cursory planning stages, and the promised reconstruction and compensation never happened.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Up in the Jemez Mountains above Los Alamos, New Mexico is a magnificent ancient volcanic caldera called Valles Caldera.

The 22 km wide Valles Caldera was formed as a result of two large volcanic eruptions. The first was 1.7 million years ago and resulted in the formation of most of the present-day Valles Caldera. Seismic investigations show that an active geothermal system lies beneath the caldera and there is still the possibility of future eruptions. In the summer the vast valley created by the eruption is lush and green and filled with a variety of grasses as well as a very special grove of Ponderosa Pine, many of which are over 300 years old called the History Grove. Ponderosa Pines generally do not live much longer than 300-400 years old. There are lava domes now tree covered in the valley.

We met Rourke McDermott, the landscape architect for the preserve, and he took us to the History Grove and told us about many of the innovative programs they are doing at the preserve. Congress is supposed to vote on whether the preserve will become a federal park under the auspices of Bandelier National Monument.

Production still of History Grove to the left and the Valles Caldera on the right

In the winter the whole preserve is open to cross country skiing on certain days. It is an incredible experience to ski there. I have been there when the wind is so strong and the snow is blowing so hard it feels like what it must be like to navigate in the arctic with one's head down and bundled against

the cold and harsh wind that rushes through the valley. Other days it is crisp and clear and stunningly pristine.

Over 1/3 of Valle Caldera burned in the Las Conchas fire this summer. From what I understand most of the valley was spared from the blaze.

We will be interviewing Rourke McDermott for our Creative-Native Project documentary on New Mexico. Catherine Harris, who teaches in the Land Art Program at University of New Mexico also comes from a landscape architecture background. I had no idea that landscape architecture was used in such a variety of ways and it is an interesting coincidence that we will be interviewing two different landscape architects for our program on New Mexico.

Rourke and I in the History Grove

Rourke is a multi-talented individual and he shows me his beautiful micaceous pit-fired pots

History

Use of the Valles Caldera dates back to the prehistoric times with the discovery of spear points dated to 11,000 years old.[2] Several Native American Tribes frequented the caldera, often seasonally for hunting and for obsidian used for spear and arrow points. Obsidian from the Caldera was traded by tribes across much of the Southwest. Eventually, Spanish and later Mexican settlers as well as theNavajo and other tribes came to the caldera seasonally for grazing with periodic clashes and raids. Later as the United States acquired New Mexico as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Caldera became the backdrop for the Indian wars with the U.S Army and the caldera began to be used for commercial purposes such as ranching and logging. During this period in 1876, the caldera became part of the Baca Ranch. The Bacas were a wealthy family given the land as compensation for the termination of a grant given to their family in Northeastern New Mexico. Since then, the land has been through a string of exchanges between private owners and business enterprises. In 2000, the Dunigan family sold the entire surface estate of 95,000 acres (380 km2) and seven-eighths of the geothermalmineral estate to the federal government.[2]

Geology and science

Cerro la Jara (right) in winter.

Satellite image of Valle Caldera.

Valles Caldera is one of the smaller volcanoes in the supervolcano class. The circular topographic rim of the caldera measures 19 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. The caldera and surrounding volcanic structures are the most thoroughly studied caldera complex in the United States. Research studies have concerned the fundamental processes of magmatism, hydrothermal systems, and ore deposition. Nearly 40 deep cores have been examined, resulting in extensive subsurface data.

The Valles Caldera is the younger of two calderas known at this location, having collapsed over and buried the Toledo Caldera, which in turn may have collapsed over yet older calderas. The associated Cerros del Rio volcanic field, which forms the eastern Pajarito Plateau and theCaja del Rio, is older than the Toledo Caldera. These two large calderas formed during eruptions 1.47 million and 1.15 million years ago.[6] The Caldera and surrounding area continue to be shaped by ongoing volcanic activity. The El Cajete Pumice, Battleship Rock Ignimbrite, Banco Bonito Rhyolite, and the VC-1 Rhyolite were emplaced during the youngest eruption of Valles caldera, about 50,000–60,000 years ago. Seismic investigations show that a low-velocity zone lies beneath the caldera, and an active geothermal system with hot springs and fumaroles exists today.[1]

The volcanic properties of the Valles Caldera make it a likely source for renewable and nonpolluting geothermal energy. However, some people oppose development of the geothermal energy, considering it destructive to scenic beauty and recreational and grazing use.[7][8]

The lower Bandeliertuff which can be seen along canyon walls west of the Valles Caldera, including San Diego Canyon, is related to the eruption and collapse of the Toledo Caldera. The upper Bandelier tuff is believed to have been deposited during eruption and collapse of the Valles Caldera. The now eroded and exposed orange-tan, light-colored Bandelier tuff from these events creates the stunning mesas of the Pajarito Plateau.

These calderas and associated volcanic structures lie within the Jemez Volcanic Field. This volcanic field lies above the intersection of the Rio Grande Rift, which runs north-south through New Mexico, and the Jemez Lineament, which extends from southeastern Arizona northeast to western Oklahoma. The volcanic activity here is related to the tectonic movements of this intersection.

Recreation

A number of recreational and/or historical uses take place in the Valles Caldera. Many of these uses involve trails. Valles Caldera has many miles of ranch roads and livestock and game trails. These include a network of trails currently designated for horse riding.[9][10][11] Historically, Valles Caldera was a location for equestrian endurance races. After establishment of VCNP the first race in the caldera was held in 2009. The largest grass valley, Valle Grande, is a venue for ski orienteering. Activities are open to the public, though some require reservations. Customer service and concierge services are provided by the Public Lands Interpretive Association.

Wildlife and livestock

Mule resting in Valle Jaramillo during an endurance race; trees in the background lack lower branches due to browsing.

Throughout the caldera the grass valleys appear groomed: there are few saplings and mature trees lack lower branches. This is due to heavybrowsing by elk and cattle. Although the grass appears abundant, it is a limited resource. Its growing season is short, it feeds thousands of cattle in the summer and more thousands of elk all year, and during most of the year its nutritional value is low.

About Me

To see Ms. Hardy’s art, especially her focus on and love of ancient trees and forests go to: http:// www.franhardy.com. Her drawings and paintings of trees, are part of a lifelong passion that centers around very elaborate, otherworldly large scale drawings and their interpretation into paintings.
For more in-depth information on the projects go to:
http://www.earthchroniclesproject.com